


And Then There Was One

by WeirdTea



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore's Army, Good Slytherins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 23:04:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21400117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdTea/pseuds/WeirdTea
Summary: Set during DH at Hogwarts. Neville's having a hard time without Ginny and Luna, bit of a crisis moment for him actually. There's hints are Seamus X Dean and also just general Dumbledore's Army stuff.Written as part of my Year of Glorious Fanfiction project.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	And Then There Was One

Seamus’s breathing was labored and to loud in the silent hospital wing, but Neville didn’t dare wish for him to be quieter. The silence in the room beyond their little scene was like a great lead weight on him. A silence that needed to be broken, but by what?

Seamus had gotten himself in trouble with the Carrows defending some first years, which as Ginny would have said was _so totally Seamus_. He’d been doing stupid brave stuff like that since the start of the year. Neville thought in part out of guilt, to have joined Dumbledore’s Army so late in their fifth year to now be a leader he felt he had a lot to atone for to earn his spot. The other part was of course Dean. Their first night back in Gryffindor tower Seamus had pointedly curled up in Dean’s bed instead of his own and had slept there instead of his own all year. Neither of them had acknowledged it. He knew the inactivity of late had been driving Seamus up the bend, desperate to do something, anything, to distract from missing his other half. Stop thoughts of how he was doing out in the world on the run while they slept safe in the castle.

Or at least, Hogwarts used to be a safe place. Not so much anymore. The Carrows knew Seamus was one of the ring leaders of the resistance and had shown him no mercy. Madam Pomfrey had told them softly not to expect him to wake up anytime soon. Neville rested his hand gently on Seamus’s bloodied one; he could sleep as long as he needed. Let him dream of Dean safe and home with him. In the meantime Neville was left to deal with reality. Although in this moment he really didn’t want to.

It wasn’t just the fact that Neville would now be the only one sleeping in his dorm made for five tonight. The brutal truth was that the DA leadership was getting rather short staffed. At the beginning of the year, literally as soon as they found a compartment on the train, Ginny had proposed the restarting of DA with herself, Neville, and Luna stepping up to fill the roles vacated by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Like that was such an easy thing. Although what really threw Neville was her insistence that it would be him not her that would be the ultimate leader. It had taken him longer than he liked to admit to see the reasoning behind this choice. Ginny was as lost without Harry as Seamus was without Dean. She was quick to action and even quicker to escalation, and while important traits if they were to truly fight this, they needed someone with a cooler head actually calling the shot. Someone she’d listen to. So he’d stepped up. Ginny was his second in command, his right hand girl, and Luna supported them both as their third. Together they had re-formed the rebellion.

That very same day on the train Luna had called it that they’d get further if they had at least one leader from each of the houses – making them a united school against the invading Carrows, symbolically at least, rather than starting an inter-house war. It was a good idea, Luna’s always were once you really thought about them, but the trouble is the idea of getting a Slytherin on side, especially to the point of leadership, seemed beyond impossible. So for a time it was just they three calling the shots.

But then Seamus started talking about Mafalda Flint. From the moment Neville had seen them together they seemed thick as thieves. Which made no sense what’s so ever. Ginny had been convinced Mafalda had spelled him somehow, something she actually apologized for later on. Because as it turns out he and Seamus weren’t the only seventh years being haunted by empty beds. Neville had never really paid much attention to the Slytherin girls, or Slytherins in general, unless they were actively bullying him. So when he first heard the name Imogen Perry he was nonplussed. However sure enough, McGonagall showed him the list of Muggle-Born students who had been unable to return to Hogwarts for their final year and there she was. A muggle-born Slytherin. First one in over 50 years. Turns out there is a big difference between impossible and just highly improbable.

She was on the run. Despite being so Slytherin to her core she’d been put there despite the adversity she’d face. Mafalda made it sound like there just was no other option for her. Imogen was a Slytherin, simple as that. And Mafalda loved her. She’d sit at windows on stormy or cold days and worry, chewing her inside cheek to shreds thinking about if she was safe or out in that or worse. Seamus cracked his knuckles. Ginny would plait and un-plait her hair over and over. But they were all doing the same thing. Neville was surrounded by lovers left behind, and it made him both profoundly lonely and profoundly aware of how lucky he was to not have that – that grief – that loss and worry to carry around like his own personal prison. Seamus and Mafalda had seen something in each other they recognised, and trust formed fast after that. Ginny was slower to convince but once she was in she was all in.

So Luna got her wish. Neville was to stay as the first point of command, Ginny as his second – in theory though both Gryffindors they were to make choices taking the whole school into consideration. Then Luna, still their third, would be Ravenclaw representative and leader of Ravenclaw specific things. Seamus and Hannah stepped up into leadership roles to be Gryffindor and Hufflepuff reps respectively, and Mafalda was of course Slytherin’s. Although she had far fewer DA members under her wing she had her hands full with a small but effective spy network and working as a go between the DA and the teachers that the Carrows and Snape wouldn’t suspect.

There was one glorious night after they’d painted DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY STILL RECRUTING in massive letters across the walls of the great hall. All the leaders had got together for a few drinks in the room of requirements. They’d been working hard and almost non-stop and needed to let off some steam before facing the response to their nights work. They’d talked about Quiddich and homework and normal things Neville hadn’t even realised he’d missed thinking about. They talked about their absent friends, for once not with sorrow or worry but with laugher as they recalled old stories and treasured moments. There was the story of Dean trying to teach Seamus football over the summer. There was Luna’s weird anecdote about Michael Corner trying to turn the Ravenclaws against Ginny after they broke up and it hilariously backfiring with them all getting mad at him instead. Hannah laughed till she squeaked recalling shenanigans her, Ernie, and Justin had got up to trying to get into the kitchens. And Mafalda joked about telling her parents she was in love with a muggle-born but opening with the ‘good news’ that she wouldn’t be having any half-blood babies due to being a huge lesbian, so the blood status of who she was dating really didn’t matter. They were flippant and happy and for a wonderful shining moment they could forget the world outside that room had gone to hell.

And now he and Mafalda were sitting next to Seamus’s still form in the hospital wing. Her eyes were red with crying and were locked onto to rise and fall of Seamus’ chest like it was her lifeline as much as his. Luna had been snatched off the train at Easter. There was no word from the Order as to her whereabouts but since the Quibbler had taken an abrupt about turn on the subject of Harry Potter no one was in any doubt who was holding her. And Ginny’s whole family had been forced into hiding after Ron was spotted with Harry.

Part of him felt like he was being asked to reconstruct the wheel. The DA was started by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and he’d never known how to fill those shoes really. And yet with Luna and Ginny beside him he felt like maybe he could. Luna, bless her strange sense of timing, had killed the mood that night by pointing out they should have a clear line of command, not so much so they could go about giving each other orders like an actual army, but so if one of the leaders was… incapacitated, they would know exactly who was expected to step up. He’d kinda hated her in that moment for bursting the same bubble they’d found for a brief moment but as usual she was right. When she’d gone Seamus had had to step up to be their third, and they’d managed to get Padma Patil to step up as back up Ravenclaw Rep.

She’d joked she’d always wanted to be a prefect and Neville had felt sick at how on the mark that was. She’d actually been one the year before but Snape had revoked all power given by the ‘previous regime’. The house representative’s, or Pillars of the School as Luna had called them, were the closest thing to prefects they had. They were responsible, taking care of the younger students. Even liaising with some of the teachers. _Just not the head-teacher_.

Then he’d lost Ginny and Neville felt like he’d lost his arm. His right hand. Half himself. How was he supposed to do this without Ginny? Luna had been bad enough, she was the ideas girl, but Ginny was his fire. Since she’d gone he’d less lead the resistance as much as he’d directed Seamus and Mafalda’s restless energy. And it turned out he hadn’t done such a good job of that either.

With Seamus down the next on the list was Hannah. Sweet, kind Hannah. The Hufflepuff rep, he knew she could take lead when needed but he just didn’t have the same trust with her as he had with Ginny and Luna. They weren’t close, never had been. He could still remember the horrible moment the year before when she’d been called out of Herbology to be told her mother had been found dead. They hadn’t seen her again for the rest of the year. She’d had to re-sit sixth year so they weren’t even in classes together anymore and most of them couldn’t seem to think what to say to her anymore.

They’d sat there too long. The sky outside the ornate windows was turning red as the day bled into night. He wanted Mafalda to say it. He wanted so desperately in that moment for her to turn around and throw the towel in. Let the adults fight this war, we’re just kids and we’re no chosen ones. He needed her to say it. Because he couldn’t. And every inch of his body was screaming at him that if no one did, if he kept going despite all of the loss and the insurmountableness of it all it would break him. She looked so close to breaking too. So brittle around the edges. A gust of air at the right angle would shatter her. And Seamus was already laying broken before them. She just needed to say ‘it’.

She didn’t though. Instead they both let the silence stretch on until it was suffocating. Until the sun had disappeared beneath the horizon, and they both new they’d face hell if caught out of bed this late. But then rain started drip dripping on the window, getting stronger until it became a downpour. For a brief moment Neville considered running outside to scream at the sky. It was just a moment, a flicker of an idea. But the image sparked so much joy and relief in his aching chest that he almost didn’t notice Seamus’s breathing even out. The ragged intake and shuddering puffs were gone, replaced with the all to familiar sounds of him sleeping peacefully. Neville wanted to cry, and when he locked eyes with Mafalda for the first time in hours he found her surprisingly dry eyed. He guessed she’d cried herself out. When she spoke there was steal in her voice hadn’t heard before.

“Hannah’s temporary second in command. _Temporary_. Seamus is down but he isn’t out”

Neville could only nod mutely. It was odd the power so few words had on him. Here he’d been spiralling and she’s been what? Planning? The hard look in her eyes, the jut of her chin, the steel in her – she’d never once considered this an out. Never even let it cross her mind they were beaten. Her surety in them powering on was something to behold. With Seamus out she was third. They’d argued a lot about her placement in the ranking. All agreed she was integral and should therefore be ranked high but there was also the consensus that the DA wouldn’t follow a Slytherin easily should it come to that and her role as it stood didn’t mesh well with being a visible leader. Still, Neville had been a fool not to see she’d been acting as his second on equal footing with Seamus for a while now. Her conceding to Hannah was a mark of how important her work was more than anything else. And oh how grateful he was to her in that moment. Grateful to all she was.

Seamus getting taken down like this had made him falter. Made him blink. But she looked at him and saw a leader. And he could almost feel himself expanding to fill the outline of him she saw. As if hearing his thought she broke the hard eye contact and reached out for his hand that was still resting on Seamus’s.

“They’re looking to _you_, you know. Not Ginny, not Luna, not Seamus, not even Potter – _you_. _You’re_ here and _you’re_ fighting for them. And as long as we’ve got breath in our bodies we’ll fight beside you. I wish we didn’t have to. I wish a lot of things. I mostly wish for Imogen. Wished for Dean to be okay for Seamus. For us all to be okay. But the only way those things are gonna happen is if we fight.”

And then, in a lighter tone almost as an afterthought,

“And you know Hannah’s a pretty tough nut. More than up to filling Ginny’s boots for a bit. I like her. And she likes you. And you know unlike the rest of us sad sacks she’s not currently attached to anyone”

She gave his hand a gentle squeeze before releasing him.

“Who knows what could happen”

When Neville spoke his voice was tired but lighter than he expected it to be.

“What could happen? Hmm, well we could win the war, get all our friends back safe, and I get the girl?” He chuckled dryly at the idea of it. “Who’s been teaching you to be so hopeful?”

“You” She smiled at him before turning to leave.

He waited a minute before heading out himself, not traveling together made it easier to avoid capture. He took his time getting back to Gryffindor tower, taking all the back routes and secret passageways he could think of, mulling over the very, very long day. When he reached his empty dorm room and saw the empty beds he muttered to himself “and then there was one” but the despair did not reach his heart. He may be alone tonight, but tomorrow he would have friends beside him. And they were going to _win_.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd be very down to expand this into a longer work if there is enough interest, I feel like there is so much to write about at Hogwarts that year. Please do let me know what you think! x
> 
> This was written as part of my project where I write at least two paragraphs of fanfiction every day for a year. This is only the second thing I've posted so all the feedback would be lovely to keep me going.


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